A Textbook Case of Charter Skimming

Charter schools were created to help the neediest students. Now, however, many charters skim off the most advantaged students and avoid those who are needy. This harms the public schools, removing their best students and overloading them with the students who require the most services.

“Woodland Community Consolidated School District 50 in Gurnee filed a lawsuit against Prairie Crossing Charter School and two state agencies Tuesday, alleging that millions in state aid that should have been spent on instruction for low-income and at-risk students have been “siphoned away” to pay for a small number of charter school students, officials announced.”

“The district has asked a Cook County court to reverse a five-year reauthorization of Prairie Crossing Charter School approved in April by the Illinois State Charter School Commission, which is named in the lawsuit. The district also named as a defendant the Illinois…